Mensa Otabil - Thomas Did Not Believe (10/18/2025)
John 20:24–25: Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, «We have seen the Lord.» He said to them, «Unless I see His hands, the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."I like the Bible because the stories are real.
If you were Thomas, you would probably behave the same way; after all, the disciples didn’t believe until they had seen Jesus Christ. This is very important because this story has deep implications for all of us. For every other believer after the first century Christians, every believer came to believe in Jesus without seeing Him. Jesus had to make a very important point regarding Thomas’s situation here.
Thomas had heard that Jesus had resurrected, but he said, «I’m not going to believe it.» However, he believed that Jesus was dead. How did Thomas know that Jesus was dead? He was not there at Calvary; he didn’t see the crucifixion. How did he know Jesus was dead? He heard people talk about it; he had the report that Jesus was dead, and he believed it without evidence. He could believe that Jesus had died without seeing His dead body, without being present at His crucifixion.
Many people can believe the negative without evidence like Thomas but struggle to believe the positive without evidence. So, he believed Jesus was dead, although he was not there. He believed Jesus had been nailed through His hands; he didn’t see it-somebody told him. He believed Jesus’s side had been pierced; how did he know? He wasn’t there-somebody told him. Yet when the same people told him that Jesus had resurrected, he dismissed it.
He didn’t believe the witness of His resurrection but accepted their report of His death. So, we see that Thomas had a selective belief system; he selects what he can believe and what he cannot believe. He chooses what is convenient and what is inconvenient to believe. Many people are like that; they select what they want to believe about God. They choose what to accept in the Bible. They might say, «Oh, this part of the Bible is God,» but when another part says something, they respond, «No, I don’t want to believe that.»
Somebody will go to a service and say, «Oh, yes, I believe that God is speaking to me through the message,» but then think, «Oh, but this one is not for me because it’s uncomfortable; it pierces me too deeply; it demands too much from me.» You cannot be selective in what you believe. Thomas would be credible if he said, «I don’t believe in His death because I didn’t see it, and I don’t believe in His resurrection because I don’t see it.» But you cannot say, «I believe in His death, which I didn’t see, but cannot believe in His resurrection, which I also didn’t see.» You can’t be selective; you can’t choose your faith. You can’t choose what is convenient for you and what you want to apply to your life.
That’s a very important conversation we should have and a significant warning for all of us: don’t be selective in what you choose to believe about God. The Bible is entirely the Word of God; it is God’s full counsel to us. Jesus is entirely who He says He is. You can’t choose to believe one part and disbelieve another. That is the problem with Thomas. Strangely, he’s called a twin; he’s double-sided. He can’t focus completely on his belief. I pray that God will help each of us arrive at a complete and full understanding of the Word of God.
Let’s pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, Your written Word is You speaking to me. I receive the fullness of Your Word as truth. In Jesus’s name, amen.»